


My Bro's So Cool

by glaciesdraco



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: A little angsty?, Fluff, Gen, Man Sans You're So Badass, Title of the Work is literally what Sans and Paps are thinking the whole time, Underfell, baby bones, it's always angsty tbqh, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 05:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10404498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glaciesdraco/pseuds/glaciesdraco
Summary: Papyrus won't go to bed.





	

“Papyrus, go to bed.”

Sans tried not to grit his teeth, glaring through the dimly lit living room from the top of the stairs, staring at his brother who was still fully dressed with a bone club at the ready. He’d just learned how to create the attack that week and had been using it as a prop for his childish ventures.

Papyrus didn’t answer him, or even turn to look at him from the door. All he did was glare directly in front of him, like if it moved he wouldn’t miss it for the world. Sans marched down the steps.

“Papyrus,” Sans said loudly, “ _Bed. Now.”_

“No.” Papyrus said huffily, still staring at the door.

Sans was so not in the mood for this. Papyrus had been like this every night since they’d moved in (which was almost two months ago), and every night when Sans got home from work, there he would be; standing, unmoving, unwilling to let up his guard duty to even eat it seemed like.

“Bro,” Sans said, squatting to his brother’s height beside him and trying to find his patience through all of his exhaustion, “We need to go to bed. We both have big days ahead of us tomorrow and we need sleep if we wanna keep our guard up.”

“I don’t need sleep,” Papyrus argued firmly, now turning to look at him, “You need sleep to go to work. I’ve gotta watch the door to make sure no one busts inside.”

“No one’s gonna bust inside, bro. The door’s got three padlocks on it and the windows are boarded down real good. No one’s gonna get us.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. No one would be stupid enough _to_ mess with us if they tried. I’ll protect us; you get some sleep.”

“You can’t protect us when you’re sleeping,” Papyrus said obnoxiously, sneering in Sans’ face in the light, “I get to protect us when it’s nighttime. It’s only fair.”

“Yeah, except you won’t sleep in the daytime either! All you do is stare at the door! What are you even doing? You can’t do anything if a thief comes in here.”

“Can too!”

“Can not! So just go your little ass to bed already!”

“No! You’re not the boss of me!” Papyrus sat on the floor and huffed at him, looking mad and pouty.

Sans was too tired for this. It had been a really annoying day; he’d gotten held up on some of his work notes and the laboratory staff had started treating him differently since _it_ happened. Like they didn’t know why he was there, just some snot-nosed kid with 1 HP they could wipe out easily. Sans couldn’t even remember why he was there some days, but honestly he didn’t really care anymore. He needed the pay check to afford for him and Papyrus to live in their new house. He had to keep getting money to pay the bills, feed them both, and pay off all the piss ants he or Papyrus would inevitably piss off for being here. He was tired in general to be honest, but he couldn’t let up now. Besides, Papyrus was the whole reason he was doing this in the first place.

Sans sighed. Tried to take the mature and reasonable route.

“Come on, Paps. Please come to bed? It makes me anxious that you aren’t sleeping at night.”

“Everything makes _you_ anxious!”

Sans bit back a nasty retort. _You little shit._ Papyrus wasn’t looking, so Sans made a writhing motion with his hands behind his back to imitate his frustration.

“Yeah? Well the least you could do is make it a little easier for me! I _am_ raising your sorry ass!”

“I’m trying to _help._ ”

“I don’t _need_ your help! I need your cooperation!”

“No.” Papyrus said flatly. Sans had had it.

“Fine! I’ll make you go then!” With one flick of his wrist, Sans had Papyrus’ soul with the blue and was lifting him off the ground. Papyrus immediately protested, struggled in midair, insulting his brother.

“All you do is use Blue Magic!” he cried, “You don’t have any _real_ power.”

“Oh shut _up,_ neither do you.” Sans snapped at him, “If you insult me one more time I’m gonna lock you in the shed.”

“No!”

“That’s what I thought. Now are you gonna go to bed, or do I have to hold you down all night?”

“You can’t do that!”

“The hell I can’t!” It would be unpleasant, but Sans could probably hold Papyrus in the blue for a good four hours. Hopefully by then Papyrus would get the picture and finally see that there was no need for him to stare vacantly at their locked door all night.

~*~

Sans sat in Papyrus’ room on the floor, leaning limply on the doorframe and quietly lamenting his own existence. Papyrus continued to fight the blue, which made holding it three times more exhausting.

“Let… me… GO! You can’t keep me held down like this!”

“As if I enjoy doing this… why won’t you just go to bed!”

“If there’s no one awake to guard the house, we might have intruders!”

Sans dug the palms of his hands into his eye sockets to suppress the unyielding rage that engulfed him. They were completely insolated. They. Were. _Fine._

“Papyrus, do you think I’m stupid? I know how to take care of us! I got us a house that should be perfectly _safe_ from any intruders. And if it ever _isn’t_ , then I will _know,_ won’t I? Now go to _sleep_ you insufferable BRAT!”

“How come you cry every night then?”

Papyrus’ voice grew significantly quieter, gone limp in the bed as the blue sagged him deeper into the mattress. Sans stifled his reaction.

“What?” he tried to ask as indignantly as possible.

“Don’t treat me like I’m dumb,” Papyrus glared at him from the side, “I hear you waking up screaming. And crying sometimes. You’re scared of something.”

“I don’t _cry_ every night. You said I cry every night.” Sans tried to redirect the conversation.

“You definitely _scream_ every night! And no matter how long you sleep you’re still tired the next morning.”

“I’m just lazy, bro.”

“You’re lazy and scared!”

Sans grunted in reply.

It wasn’t… untrue. Ever since the incident with (Sans couldn’t say his name or think his name, but somehow he always _knew_ who it was, like it had been imprinted in his brain a long time ago but had been ripped away with the creases remaining. Either way, Sans hated to think about it, it made him too tired to even think) _it_ , he’d been having frequent nightmares and bad dreams. Not to say he’d never had nightmares before, but somehow before it seemed better then? Maybe he’d had some sort of temperance then, but since the incident it had broken him beyond anything. Maybe that’s all he was anymore; broken.

“Sans?” Papyrus called out to him after a while.

“What?” Sans croaked back.

“Are you afraid of dying?”

Sans huffed a laugh. Nah, he didn’t fear dying. In fact, he welcomed it; or, he would if he didn’t have a brother to look after.

“Sure, why not. Who isn’t?”

“But you only have one HP,” Papyrus said smartly, “You could be killed easily.”

“They have to catch me first, bro.”

Papyrus grumbled uncomfortably under his breath, apparently displeased with this reply.

“What about you, bro? You scared I’m gonna let you get killed?”

There was a pause. “No,” Papyrus said quickly, “But…”

Sans clenched his fists quietly as he awaited a response.

“…I don’t want you to die, Sans.”

Sans popped into existence beside him on the bed, leaning over him. Papyrus didn’t flinch, but his eyes (which were pricked with tears by now) grew wider. He released him from the blue and pulled his small little bro into a gentle hug.

“Aw c’mon Paps. Have a little more faith in me, will ya? I might have 1 HP, but I got a million tricks up my sleeve. I’m not useless, don’t… don’t just write me off for that one thing I can’t help.”

“I… I’m not, I just… how can you sleep every night knowing that you might get killed in your bed?”

Sans paused, releasing his brother to stare at him for a moment. He was a little unsure of his answer.

“I… don’t sleep all that well at night, to be honest with you Pap, but…” Sans felt his shoulders sag incrementally, “I gotta sleep so I can get up in the morning, and go to work. That’s just how it is.”

_I sleep so I can go to work so I can get paid so I can raise you._

Sans had never completely drawn the connection between sleeping and taking care of Papyrus until now, and it was a little silly once he’d admitted it to himself but it was true. Papyrus was his everything. His will to keep going, his motivation, his purpose. And if Papyrus wasn’t even taking care of _himself_ then what was the point?

“So you sleep… cause you need to?” Papyrus asked.

“Yeah Pap, of course. Everyone needs sleep. Even you.”

“I don’t need sleep. I can stay awake all the time. I just need to rest on the couch maybe twice… no, once a day.”

“ _Oh._ Yeah, two naps a day will _totally_ make up for sleeping at night Paps.”

“I know! I keep trying to tell you I don’t _need_ sleep! No one can stop the Great Papyrus!”

Sans laughed. His brother still didn’t understand the concept of sarcasm; but he wasn’t sure if he really wanted him to. He petted Papyrus gently on the head.

“You’re right about one thing, Pap,” he said warily, “No one can stop you. Not even me.”

“I know!”

Sans felt himself dip backwards off the bed and hit the floor gracelessly.

“Sans!!” Papyrus yelled in immediate terror.

“Whoa… okay, Pap… I seriously need to go to bed… please, please, _please_ don’t make me stay up tonight.”

“I won’t, I won’t!” Papyrus was on the floor and trying to help him every frame of standing up. It would have been sweet if it wasn’t so fucking condescending and annoying.

“Stop it, bro. If you really want to help me then you’ll go to bed. Seriously.”

“I will, I will!” Papyrus enthused immediately, scrambling to get onto his bed, still holding onto Sans’ hand, “B-But one more thing…”

Sans tried not to groan, staring at his brother with a half-lidded stony stare.

“W-Will you sleep with me? In my bed? Yours is so… lumpy, and… gross.”

He looked like he didn’t want to bring up the fact, but also like he wanted to say more so Sans took the short route and climbed into the bed immediately after he asked.

“Anythin’ for my baby bro. Doubt I could make it back there anyway, heh.”

He wanted to continuously reiterate to his brother just how tired he was to get the point across to him. Truth be told, Sans was a little worried about sleeping together since he’d had such frequent nightmares but at this point he could no longer help it, and hopefully he’d be too tired to dream anyway.

“Hey Pap?”

“Yeah, Sans?”

“You’re the coolest, okay? Don’t ever change.”

“I won’t!”

“Also, don’t ever keep me up this late ever again or I’ll hang you up by your ankles on the ceiling.”

Papyrus giggled amusedly, “Okay…”

“And stop sassin’ me all the time, you… who the heck raised you to be such a lippy little…”

“We don’t have lips, Sans.”

“What-the-frick ever, man. This is exactly what I’m talking about.”

Papyrus dissolved into further giggling, wrapping Sans arm around himself and pulling him closer. Sans was getting too sleepy to think straight, so he just kept lightheartedly scolding Papyrus until his brother went limp against him.

For a few minutes after Papyrus went to sleep, Sans was worried he would be too overwhelmed by their conversation to do anything other than reflect and self-deprecate. It was his fault Papyrus thought the things he did. If only he were stronger, Papyrus wouldn’t feel like he had to worry so much. He really was useless for the one thing he ever tried to do, and that was take care of him. Eventually though, Sans found sleep by thinking about how happy his brother sounded as he joked with him before bed. He’d have to remember that trick.

Sans slept, and went into a deep sleep. Pretty soon he was too drifted off to think of anything. He had no nightmares when his cool younger brother was around to protect him.

See? Papyrus was totally helping.

He’d have to let him know when he woke up. Yeah.

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously, kudos to Sans for raising that guy. I bet he was little PUNK about going to bed in literally every universe.


End file.
